1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a document camera which includes a base, an arm pivotally assembled to the base and a camera head mounted on a distal end of the arm and in which a material such as document, model or the like is imaged by the camera head and an obtained image is supplied to a monitor television or projected by a video projector onto a screen.
2. Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2013-121051 discloses one of conventional document cameras, which includes a base provided with an operation part, a first arm assembled to a central front end of the base so as to be pivotable in a front-back direction, a second arm assembled to a distal end of the first arm so as to be pivotable in the front-back direction and a camera head assembled to a distal end of the second arm so as to be pivotable in the front-back direction.
An arm housing recess is formed in a central part of the base in the above-described document camera. The first arm is pivotable between a laid position where the first arm is laid in the arm housing recess of the base and a raised position where the first arm is raised from the front end of the base to extend obliquely frontward. The second arm is pivotable between a laid position where the second arm is laid in the first arm and a raised position where the second arm is raised from the first position or a parallel extending position where the second arm extends forward in parallel to first arm. Furthermore, the camera head is pivotable between a raised position where the camera head is raised from the second arm and a parallel extending position where the camera head extends forward in parallel to the second arm.
When the document camera is not in use, the first arm is laid in the arm housing recess, and the camera head and the second arm are laid in the first arm with the camera head being located at the parallel extending position. The document camera is thus foldable. In the folded state of the document camera, upper surfaces of the second arm and the camera head are coplanar with an upper surface of the base.
In the above-described conventional document camera, the first and second arms are housed in the arm housing recess while placed vertically one upon the other. As a result, the document camera has a difficulty in reducing a thickness thereof when folded.
Furthermore, when the document camera in the folded state is set into an application mode, it cannot be determined at a glance which one the ends of the second arm and the camera head substantially coplanar with the upper surface of the base should be grasped and pivoted clockwise or counterclockwise, with the result that the document camera has a low usability